After yesterday’s two contrasting sessions with the 290, today, I cleaned her up before putting a new set of 9.5s strings on her. I spent 20 minutes of my time with her and……
I put her through Love Notes with the Mimic Mock I slapback on first, and she scored! I was impressed by her gritty raw rocky tones that I didn’t need to think of that bass punch she was lacking. Then, I turned on the boost killer and the 290 raised two notches up and ripped through the rock chords I put in. I turned up the bass on the boost killer and the 290 obliged with the bass punch. Then, I dialled back the bass so I could dial up the pro junior volume from 7 to 7.5. The 290 roared impressively through the rock chords. When I cut the boost killer, the 290 continued to rock her way through with less grit but still punched well without the need for that bass punch.
I was very satisfied. I realised during the session that perhaps, the Collings 290 DC S is worth keeping after all. I reminded myself why I got the Epiphone Gold Glory – her single P90. Now I have the single P90 in the 290. Between the two, the 290 is easier to handle.
Then, I reflected on my recent idea of getting guitars with the toggle switches in the lower bout to the left where my picking hand is and hence the idea of fender offsets……If I have the one single pickup like the 290, I don’t even need to bother about a toggle switch.